I went out several mornings ago to a reported location of a Yellow-breasted Chat. The Chat only gave me a few looks, partially hidden in the distant foliage, but this guy was a consolation prize. Several Thrashers were chasing each other around, beyond the Chat location, but at one point this one got tired of the chase and landed in a good spot . Like a studio model in a photo shoot, he gave me a number of good poses: look left, look right, frontal, prone, open beak. This was the most classic of the poses. Each time he changed position I had to take small steps to right or left to keep him centered in the sky area between the oof trees. Hoped I could get a take-off shot, but I had too much lens and too slow a reaction. This is almost full-height, cropped to vertical.
D500, 500PF, ISO 1000, 1/2000s @ f/6.3 manual, HH.
Hi Bill .. good to hear the bird gave you numerous poses while shooting him ...
The subject does look quite nice and the clean surrounding does help him pop from the BG . The BG is nice as well ... better than a plain mono coloration . Tones looking good even that the shot was taken in harsh light .... does look realistic .
Not knowing what your WF is ... just think the sharpness should be finer , IMHO . All around th e subject and perch is halo showing up !!!??
The OOF foliage creates a really interesting frame, and the details looks good across the subject. Bird does look redder than I'm accustomed to in the field. Elevated perch isn't perfect but it still works pretty well. View of the gripping feet is great.
Neat bird - I was lucky enough to get my first images of this species a few weeks ago. Good call on the vertical. The light was not your friend, with a shadow through the eye, and most of the belle in shade too. Still fun that it gave you such a clear view for so long!